Protect the Prince

Jennifer Estep

Jul 2019 · A Crown of Shards Novel Book 2 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

USA TODAY Bestseller!

Magic, murder, adventure, and romance combine in this second novel in the exciting Crown of Shards saga from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Estep.

Everleigh Blair might be the new gladiator queen of Bellona, but her problems are far from over.

First, Evie has to deal with a court full of arrogant, demanding nobles, all of whom want to get their greedy hands on her crown. As if that wasn’t bad enough, an assassin tries to kill Evie in her own throne room.

Despite the dangers, Evie goes ahead with a scheduled trip to the neighboring kingdom of Andvari in order to secure a desperately needed alliance. But complicating matters is the stubborn Andvarian king, who wants to punish Evie for the deaths of his countrymen during the Seven Spire massacre.

Dark forces are also at work inside the Andvarian palace, and Evie soon realizes that no one is safe. Worse, her immunity to magic starts acting in strange, unexpected ways, which makes Evie wonder whether she is truly strong enough to be a Winter Queen.

Evie’s magic, life, and crown aren’t the only things in danger—so is her heart, thanks to Lucas Sullivan, the Andvarian king’s bastard son and Evie’s … well, Evie isn’t quite sure what Sullivan is to her.

Only one thing is certain—protecting a prince might be even harder than killing a queen…

Ratings and reviews

PROTECT THE PRINCE is the second instalment in Jennifer Estep’s epic fantasy CROWN OF SHARDS series focusing on the newly crowned Queen of Bellona Queen Everleigh Blair. a young woman whose ascension to the throne is predicated on a murderous coup against our heroine’s family. PROTECT THE PRINCE should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up shortly after the events of book one KILL THE QUEEN. The Crown of Shards series is the focus of elemental magic, magic of which our heroine is believed to have not been blessed but Everleigh’s ‘mutt magic’ is much more than anyone could have imagined. As the series progresses, Everleigh’s strengths and powers make her the target of a group of assassins hoping to destroy whomever wears the crown. With the power to ‘scent’ out emotions, as well as her ability to manipulate magic, Everleigh is a powerful Queen, indeed. With her own band of ‘gladiators’ and Lucas Sullivan, the man that she loves, Everleigh is a force unto herself, a force that is constantly tested by would-be assassins, and spurned kings and queens. Told from first person point of view (Everleigh) PROTECT THE PRINCE follows newly crowned Queen Everleigh as she struggles to make nice with the surrounding kingdoms including Andvari, the kingdom from where Lucas once resided. Hoping to broker a deal between Andvari and Bellona, Everleigh will have to face down two more assassination attempts in her battle to bring peace between the two domains but all is not well in the kingdom of Andvari, and Everleigh is determined to discover the truth. PROTECT THE PRINCE is a complex and detailed story line of magic, mayhem, power and control; a story of betrayal and revenge; of lost love and second chances. Jennifer Estep pulls the reader into a familiar world of elemental magic, with a strong, warrior heroine, and a band of misfit protectors who would die to protect the woman they love. Similarities to the author’s ‘Elemental Assassin’ series aside, PROTECT THE PRINCE is a captivating and spellbinding look at magic and the power of love.

First I should say that I do like the storyline. It's not as good as Elemental Assassin, but it's still a good read, still enjoyable. I give it 3.5 stars (4 since I can't do 3.5 so I'll round up for this one) because of the storyline and the twists and turns it took in this book. There are some new characters that I liked quite a bit and hope to see more of, a particularly friendly Gargoyle. That being said, Book 2 in the series was also a little disappointing for me as well. First because the constant use of a particularly modern swear word felt out of place in the world she created. I couldn't find a single instance where I felt that word flowed with the rest of the dialog. I just don't understand her need to use it so frequently. There were other things that seemed incongruent, such as garlic mashed potatoes and kiwi pastries (sounds silly, I know, but it's a Kingdom in a fantasy, so you expect more exotic or unusual dishes, not something modern and ordinary like garlic mashed potatoes and kiwi pastries). There seemed to be a great deal of sliding from fantasy world to our world back to fantasy world in language, demeanor, foods and descriptive phrases. I was constantly wondering which world I was in, and although it was fantasy, I actually found myself trying to pinpoint a time period for the storyline, which in fantasy I don't feel should apply since it's not really in our world. (Note I say Fantasy, not Urban Fantasy, which this is not) But, and this is a big but, I do like the story. I do like how the kingdoms involved are having such difficulty with one warlike kingdom that is trying to take over the world. I like the way avarice is front and center in the nobility, how it follows the usual guidelines for fantasy kingdoms with the upper and lower castes clashing and allies being hard to come by while war is always imminent And I even liked the typical love story between Everleigh and Sullivan. Mostly because I enjoy a good fairy tale, and this was based on an age old one (in my opinion, not stated by Jennifer) while taking on it's own personality. So, while there were inconsistencies that I didn't like, and she was overly descriptive again (I actually skipped whole pages to avoid them), I still found I enjoyed Jennifer's writing style and storytelling ability. (I do admit to being a bit confused as to what category it's supposed to be in, YA, Upper YA or Adult because the storyline is very youth oriented. I suppose the swear word alone would keep it from being YA?) So, maybe I can't give this 5 stars like I usually gave her Elemental Assassins series. I still recognize Jennifer's particular style and enjoy it enough to be looking forward to Crush the King, Book 3.

Warning this will contain spoilers for the first book in the series. At the end of the first book Everleigh Blair had fought and defeated her cousin Vasilia to become queen of Bellona, but just because she's queen doesn't make life any easier. The nobles are placing bets on how long she'll stay alive, Maeven and the Mortan's are trying to kill her, some of the nobles are plotting to marry her off (to their own sons of course), she is in love with Lucas Sullivan but he refuses to take their relationship further because he is only the illegitimate son of the king of Andvar. And of course everyone still believes that Evie is a mutt, with very little magical powers whereas we now know that she can neutralise other people's magic. In order to protect Bellona from invasion by Andvar Evie needs to forge an alliance with Andvar, but the King hasn't forgiven Bellona for the murder of his younger son and his attendants when Vasilia ascended the throne of Bellona by massacring her own mother and the Bellonian court with the assistance of Mortan spies. So Evie and her friends travel to Andvar to try to persuade the King but Mortan assassins and spies are everywhere and Evie's presence may be doing more harm than good. Can Evie follow her heart, protect Bellona and weed out the Mortan assassins while negotiating a deal? I love a traditional fantasy in which the poor downtrodden servant/belittled sibling turns out to have extraordinary powers, yet remains humble alongside lots of swords and sorcery type battles and this reminded very much of those, like the David Eddings series, heck even Harry Potter. Loved this, devoured it in one day reading until 3:30 am and I can not wait for the third installment.

About the author

Jennifer Estep is a New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author who prowls the streets of her imagination in search of her next fantasy idea.Jennifer is the author of the Crown of Shards, Elemental Assassin, and other fantasy series. She has written more than 35 books, along with numerous novellas and stories.In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys hanging out with friends and family, doing yoga, and reading fantasy and romance books. She also watches way too much TV and loves all things related to superheroes.